Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

If you are new to affiliate marketing, you may have run into some affiliate programs that have intimidated you because of their terms of service or difficulty in entering. Don’t let these programs get to you. This article is going to alert you to some of the things you’ll run into and then, after doing that, will tell you why you shouldn’t let these programs get under your skin. I think you’ll want to read this.

First of all, let me tell you WHY I am writing this article. It’s in response to a Warrior Forum thread concerning FTC guidelines for affiliate marketers and how it seems that NOBODY is in compliance. Now, I find that kind of hard to believe since, if that were true, we’d have a lot of affiliate marketers getting fined and having their sites shut down. Plus, the info didn’t come from the FTC itself but from an affiliate program.

Long story short, the people who run this particular program seem to have their own interpretation of the FTC guidelines and because of this interpretation, feel that none of their affiliates are in compliance and are demanding that they do certain things when promoting their product that, in my opinion, are totally ridiculous and unenforceable. This is the one thing that you’re going to run into as an affiliate marketer. But it’s not the end of the line.

Another thing you’re going to run into is affiliate programs that make all these demands such as, you have to have your own domain, you can’t have any other ads on your site, no AdSense, no CPA, and so on. They want you to have a site that essentially looks like an offshoot of their own program. Otherwise, they will not approve you for their program to sell any of their products.

Something else you’ll run into with some affiliate programs is a totally convoluted approval process. For example, some programs, you first have to sign up with an affiliate marketplace, such as Linkshare or Shareasale, and then, after you’ve done that, have to go through another signup process with the product itself. For a new person, this can get to be a little confusing, going through so many steps just to sell one product. Many affiliate marketers will be turned off by this and skip the process altogether.

Okay, why shouldn’t you let these things intimidate you? One very simple reason.

These people need YOU.

Without you selling their products, they make NO money. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that in that respect, affiliate marketers are in the driver’s seat. They can make or break an affiliate program. Imagine if every affiliate marketer decided to boycott a particular marketplace because of problems with that marketplace. What do you think would happen?

So please, don’t let affiliate programs intimidate you. With all the ones out there, they need YOU more than YOU need THEM.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you’re probably wondering why ClickBank doesn’t notify you when you get a sale, similar to what PayDotCom does. Well, there is a very long story behind this. If you’re an old timer, you probably remember the days when you got notifications as an affiliate. For you new people, this article explains what happened and why you will probably never see an affiliate sale notification from ClickBank again.

When I first started promoting ClickBank products, back in 2003, I was getting these affiliate sale notifications by the truck load. It was a great feeling. But then I started wondering about those super affiliates who were probably getting ten times as many notifications as I was. Their email boxes must have been stuffed to the brim. And then that got me thinking some more. What about those new affiliates who didn’t know that these were coming and just happened to get their email boxes stuffed with similar notifications that were actually spam. You know which emails I’m talking about. It’s very hard to tell the difference between the two.

Well, you guessed it. A lot of these affiliates, thinking the email from ClickBank was just more spam (thank you spammers for screwing up our lives), reported these emails to their ISP. Apparently, enough of these emails were reported that ClickBank actually had some problems with THEIR ISP. As a result, they had no choice but to discontinue sending affiliate sale emails as they couldn’t risk having their hosting pulled out from under them. That would have been a major catastrophe. Anyway, that’s the story. That’s why you don’t get affiliate sale notifications from ClickBank.

Okay, so what can you do about it? Well, what you can do is put a tracker on your affiliate links. No, it won’t tell you if somebody actually clicks through to the payment page, as that goes through the vendor pay link, but it will tell you how many people have been to your affiliate link. If there are no clicks for a given day, you know that there is little possibility of a sale. Yes, there are exceptions that I won’t get into here. However, if you get many clicks, a simple check of your ClickBank account at the end of each day will let you know how many sales you’ve gotten.

No, it’s not perfect and it does require you to do a little bit of work, but it’s the best we have given what we have to work with. Like I said, you can thank the spammers for these headaches. I’m curious as to how PayDotCom hasn’t been hit with the same problem as I still get sales emails as an affiliate from them whenever I make a sale.

Maybe that’s a question I should ask Mike Filsaime one day.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

This article was inspired by an interesting thread over at the Warrior Forum that actually had nothing to do with selling gaming items… at least not initially. The original thread had to do with ClickBank gravity scores and if they could be trusted, which is another topic altogether. But in this article, we’re going to answer the question, “Can gaming items be sold?” Keep reading to find out how.

Okay, what happened in the thread is that one person commented that they were having problems selling things for FarmVille and some other game. They were getting traffic but they weren’t getting any conversions, so they were wondering if these gaming items actually sold. Well, the best way I can answer that question is with a true story.

Many years ago, I played this game called Might And Magic VI. It was, at the time, my favorite game ever. It may still be my favorite game ever. I played it constantly. Anyway, the game started to get REALLY hard. I just couldn’t figure out some of the puzzles no matter how hard I tried. Because I loved the game so much and because I wanted to get through it, I finally broke down and hunted for some kind of clue book. I found one. It wasn’t free. I had two choices. I could do without it or I could buy it. What do you think I did?

See, the reason why people have problems selling gaming products is because these products don’t offer any real additional value to the game itself. They don’t make the games easier to play. They don’t offer any extra items or things that make the game more fun to play. They simply don’t have enough value. What? Tips on how to build a better character? So what? Who cares? I’ll make do with the characters I have. Give me something that will help me beat the game… something that, if I had to figure it out on my own, would take me weeks or even months.

In other words… help me save some of my valuable time so that I can get more bang out of the game I’m playing. I don’t want to be stuck in the same maze for weeks and weeks. Eventually, that gets boring. I want to get out. And if you can give me a companion product that will get me out of that maze quicker, I will buy it.

Now, a lot of people say that there is just too much free stuff and that makes buying many products pointless. There may be some truth to this. So then stay away from those games. Look for games where there isn’t as much free stuff. Then, if you find something that actually enhances the gaming experience, sell it. Naturally, you want to first find out if there is a big enough market for the product.

No, selling gaming products isn’t easy. But if you do your research, come up with a popular game and then find a product that really enhances game play, where there isn’t a lot of free info floating around, you can very well make a nice chunk of change from this product.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

There is no doubt that Google is really dropping the hammer on AdWords users. It’s all about the end user experience, as it should be. So what’s ultimately happened is that PPC users have found that their squeeze pages have been getting bitch slapped all over the place. Surprise, surprise. Anyway, this prompts the question, “Are squeeze pages for AdWords a dead duck?” The simple answer is, yes, they are. Kiss them goodbye. If you use them, you will get slapped into last century. Question number two is a little more complicated to answer. If this IS the case, what do we do about it? Keep reading to find out. You’re NOT going to like the answer.

Ultimately, Google has decided that it’s sick and tired of Internet marketers who slap together these crappy sites and call them content. Squeeze pages are now looked at as nothing more than email collectors. And they want nothing to do with them. Think I’m kidding? Go put up a squeeze page and see how long it takes before it’s pounded into dust. Google wants content, plain and simple. REAL content.

So, if you want to compete in the AdWords game, this is what you are now going to have to do. You’re going to have to build something very close to an authority site on your subject. You’re going to need a home page, a page with content, a contact page, and maybe even an FAQ page. Anything you can think of to add to the site to make it look like the big boys…do it. Okay, great, but then how do you get your opt ins if that’s ultimately what you’re after?

Well, you’re going to have to do what I do with my sites. At the end of your articles, or whatever content you offer your target market, you’re going to have to have some kind of resource box or blurb that says something like, “If you’d like more information, go to…” and then give them the URL of your squeeze page which MUST be different from the main domain you’re using. This way Google will be content with the end user experience that you’re giving your visitors.

Will this lower your opt in rate? Yes. Will this make your AdWords campaign more costly? Yes. Will this make using AdWords less desirable? God I hope so. See, the truth is, you don’t need Google to make money. PPC costs are insane as it is. And with Google putting down the hammer on just everything that actually WORKS for Internet marketers, it almost makes no sense TO use them. But by all means, knock yourself out if that’s what you want.

There ARE better ways.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of getting slapped by Google? Want a better way to promote your affiliate products or even your own products? Get a hold of my Affiliate Assassin at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html, promote your products at absolutely NO cost, and tell Google to kiss your backside.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you might find this article quite interesting and thought provoking. It was inspired by a Warrior Forum thread where a member had an ethical dilemma regarding promoting a product that he’d never actually seen. This may strike quite a few nerves with quite a few people. Well, I certainly hope so because this is an issue that DOES need to be addressed.

First I need to give you the story. I’ll try to do it as briefly as possible. This particular marketer is very successful outside of the make money online niche and very respected too. The situation is this. This person got quite a few emails about a particular new product coming out, wondering what he though of it and if he’d recommend it. Well, he’d never actually seen the product. All he knew about it was that it came with a $1,000 price tag. With all the inquiries he had gotten, he realized that if he just sent an affiliate link to his list he could make quite a few sales.

Problem is, he’d never seen the product and he felt funny about recommending something that he didn’t know anything about, let alone if it was a good or bad product. The bigger problem here is that NOBODY can actually know what’s in this product because it’s not even created yet. Yes, this is one of those, “pay me now and we’ll get it to you later” deals. So people are really buying on the promises of the sales copy and the reputation of the seller. Personally, I would never sell things like this but that’s just me. Yeah, there are enough ethical questions regarding this sort of thing to go around.

So the question is, when all is said and done, do you promote the product or not? Even if you say to your list, “Look, I don’t know anything about the product but these guys have a solid reputation so here’s my affiliate link if you want to get it from me” how much respect are you going to get from them pitching something, even in that way, that you’ve never seen? I would think that you’d lose the respect of a lot of people if you did that.

Ultimately, you have to do what you think is right for you and your business. For me, I can only pitch something if I have actual knowledge of the product, even if that knowledge is through an inside source. But I have to know enough about it to speak intelligently about it. So far it’s worked for me.

You have to do what works for you.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

I’ve gotten into quite a few arguments during my seven plus years of marketing online. But the last couple of days have been something else altogether. Over at the Warrior Forum, one of the newer members has proclaimed that affiliate marketing is NOT sustainable as a business model. Heck, one person said it isn’t a business model at all. Needless to say, this really got me all hot and bothered. Well, in this article, we’re going to beat this horse to death. Sit back and relax because this is going to take a while.

I guess I need to start with why this person says that affiliate marketing is not sustainable as a business model. He claims that in order to have a sustainable business model, you have to be in control of at least two of three things and, if possible, all three. These three things are product, price and service. As an affiliate, you have no control over any of those things. He also states that no bank will give you a loan if you tell them that your business is as an affiliate marketer. Let’s take point one.

I can’t argue with the basic statement that as an affiliate, you have no control over those three things. The product is somebody else’s, they set the price and they handle the customer service. If they drop the ball on any of these things, you’re pretty much helpless as far as what you can do. In fact, all you can do is pick another product. So he’ll get no argument from me over these facts. However, these facts by themselves do not dictate that affiliate marketing is not sustainable, but we’ll get back to that soon.

Let’s go to the next point…that a bank won’t give you a loan if you tell them that your business model is marketing other people’s products. Well, many banks won’t. But some will IF you show them a solid business plan of HOW you’re going to market these products. Think about it. Many off line business sell other people’s products (or have you never been in a department store?) and they get loans. Truth is, Internet businesses in general are not taken seriously by many banks. So this is really a non issue as it can just as easily apply to somebody who IS selling their own products.

Getting back to the product, price and service issue, while on the surface this is true, so what? It’s not like you only have the choice of one product and if that should turn out to be crap you can’t sell something else. There are thousands of products out there that an affiliate marketer can sell. Some of them are evergreen or close to it. Besides, even with your own product, eventually, the product becomes old, doesn’t sell anymore and you have to create another one. So what really is the difference?

As a product creator, I will say that there are definite advantages to selling your own products. But to say that affiliate marketing is not sustainable is just ridiculous. I know quite a few affiliate marketers who don’t create their own products and are very successful.

So before you decide to pack in the affiliate marketing model because it’s not “sustainable”, take it from somebody who does both…you CAN make very good money as an affiliate marketer for a very long time as long as you put in the time and effort.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

I love going to the Warrior Forum to see what questions are being asked. Today’s seems to be this one. “Is ClickBank still profitable?” Now, you’re probably wondering what would bring a question like this up. Well, I’m going to explain the reasons and then, I’m going to separate fact from fiction and hysteria. Yes, there is a lot of that going around and it’s about time somebody set the record straight.

Okay, let’s start with the reasons why this question gets asked so much. For starters, there are a lot of ClickBank affiliate marketers out there. I can’t even count that high. So the general consensus is that the market for selling ClickBank products is saturated and that there is no way to get a foot in the door today if you already haven’t.

Another reason that people ask if the model is still sustainable is because there is a lot of talk going around about buyers of these products actually stealing commissions. What they supposedly do is replace the affiliate’s link with their own and buy through that link itself. Because of this, potential affiliates feel that it’s just not worth promoting a ClickBank product.

Finally, there is the general feeling that ClickBank products themselves are not any good anymore. I don’t know what brought this one on but that’s how a lot of people feel.

So okay, those are the problems we’re facing. Let me put each one of them into perspective so that you can see the actual reality and not the hysteria that some people like to cause if for no other reason that the fact that they simply have no life.

Let’s start with the competition. Of course there is competition. But competition in itself is NOT a bad thing. If you go above and beyond what the typical affiliate marketer does, which isn’t much, you can leave the competition in the dust. The key is simply doing more than the typical affiliate.

What about stealing of commissions? Well, in the make money online product line, this does happen. But with ClickBank’s new cloaking system, these thefts have been cut down dramatically. Also, there is no reason why you have to promote in this niche. There are tons of products in other areas where the buyers are NOT marketers and they DON’T steal commissions. In fact, they are the easiest people in the world to sell to for a number of reasons.

Finally, we have the myth that ClickBank products aren’t any good. This is just absurd. Sure, some products are crap…just like at any other marketplace. It’s not the marketplace that makes the product good or bad. It’s the product creator.

In short, ClickBank is more than a viable option for selling affiliate products. Learn some solid affiliate marketing tactics and you should sell ClickBank products just fine.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

I don’t normally write articles like this, but in the over 7 years that I have been marketing online, I have never met a more egotistical, pompous son of a bitch than this person.

Please check out this thread and read the posts by Danny Adams.

Is Affiliate Marketing A Sustainable Model?

I have never in my life read such dreck.

Essentially, what he says is that if you are doing affiliate marketing, eventually, you will stop making money because you will damage your reputation selling bad products.

He also says that it’s not a sustainable business model. Heck, claims that affiliate marketing isn’t a business at all.

I’ve gone a few rounds with him but I’m done. He’s already taken too much of my time.

Read it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Your comments are welcome.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

One thing I have learned as an affiliate marketer is that the best way to sell an affiliate product is to review the product so that prospects can get an idea of how good it is from an actual user of the product. The problem many affiliates run into is that they don’t have the money to buy these products and they can’t get a free copy to review because merchants want to see some sign that you have success as an affiliate marketer before they do that. So here’s how you get around this problem.

What you want to do is purchase a very low end product… maybe even one that sells for as low as $7 and only pays about $3 in commissions. Why do you want to do this? The answer is simple. For one thing, the price isn’t going to break you at all. If you can’t afford $7, you don’t belong trying to market online anyway. This should be easy enough for you to pull off. But there’s an even more important reason for doing this.

Think about how easy a $7 item is to sell. Many people, especially in the “make money” niche, have a problem spending money on high end items but will have no problems purchasing a $7 item. Therefore, you should make plenty of sales of this item. The dollars actually earned don’t matter. The reason is because NOW you have some level of success to show the merchant whose product you want to sell. You can prove to him that you’ve successfully marketed a product as an affiliate. He will now be more likely to give you that free product to review, one that will probably be a lot more money.

Now you can work on selling a higher end product and get even more merchants to give you free copies when they see huge dollar amounts earned on your part. The more money you can show THEM the more likely they will be to provide YOU with a review copy. And if they don’t, it’s no big deal. There is going to be somebody who will. Not everybody is going to say yes. Some merchants won’t allow you to even be their affiliate, for closed programs, simply because they don’t know you. They wouldn’t care how much money you’ve earned. You FIRST have to earn their trust by letting them get to know you. And that takes time.

Point is, you shouldn’t let the problem of getting review copies of products get in your way. Find yourself a cheap product, buy it, review it and sell it and that will lead to you getting review copies down the road with very little problem at all.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

I’ve yet to see somebody really tackle this issue in regard to affiliate marketing. Truth is, this is a serious problem. What am I talking about? I’m referring to the affiliate and merchant wars. Oh, you haven’t heard? Well, sit back, relax, grab a cup of whatever and read this. I promise you that it will be most enlightening.

Where do I even begin to try to explain what has been a problem ever since the first product got promoted through an opt in page? Yes, an opt in page. You know the one I’m talking about. That’s where the prospect gets directed, not to a sales page…to an opt in page. There, the prospect gives his name and email and gets some kind of free report or whatever, all while being added to the merchant’s list.

And therein lies where the war begins. See, the affiliate, thinking that he’s doing all this work to drive traffic to the merchant’s opt in page, feels that HE should be the one getting the opt in…not the merchant. As a result, many affiliates will no longer promote a product that doesn’t go directly to a sales page. And in a way, you can’t blame them.

But let’s look at it from the perspective of the merchant. See, their bottom line is simple…make as many sales as possible. What do you think is going to make them more sales, building a list or NOT building a list? Well, without testing and without looking at each specific niche, it’s impossible to say. I can say, however, from my own experience, that building a list as a product creator has been the best thing I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t make nearly as much without one.

Okay, but why the war? Why won’t an affiliate promote a product through an opt in page and why won’t the merchants give in and send prospects directly to a sales page? Well, this is where the element of trust comes in.

See, the affiliate thinks, aside from the belief that they should get the opt in, that if they send a prospect to an opt in page, they won’t get credit for the sale afterwards. And in some cases, this is true. There are some shady merchants out there who send their list to a different sales page that doesn’t track affiliate clicks. Not cool, but it happens.

On the other side of the coin, let’s be honest here. An affiliate can build a list for the affiliate product and then, if they choose, promote different products to that list. So the merchant has less of a chance of making a sale from that affiliate. Also, an affiliate can drop a product at the drop of a hat. There is very little loyalty to merchants with so many products to choose from. And why should there be?

So as you see, because of the self serving interests of both parties, it is almost impossible to get any affiliate OR merchant loyalty. Each side is simply looking out for their own interests…as it should be. This, however, gives us the wars we have now.

And I don’t see them ending anytime soon unless affiliates and merchants learn to trust each other.

To YOUR Success

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.